Sunita Rani named in squad for
OlympicsNEW DELHI,
Aug 26  Middle distance runner Sunita Rani, who is
recovering from injury,has found a place in the 33 member
Indian Athletic-squad for the Sydney Olympic Games.

Tiger races aheadAKRON, Aug
26  Tiger Woods again gave a gentle reminder to his
competitors in the $ five million World Golf Championship
Invitational here that he is the best and then there is
the rest.

Johnson ready to make historyBRUSSELS,
Aug 26  Michael Johnson, who earned a special place
in the Olympics with his 200 and 400 metres double at the
1996 Atlanta games, returned to the track with an
impressive one-lap victory on Friday which suggested he
was ready to make more sporting history next month.

BRUSSELS: Maurice Greene of the USA, left, bolts ahead of Trinidad's Ato Bolden
toward the finish line in the men's 100 metres during the
Memorial Van Damme track meet at King Baudouin stadium in Brussels on
Friday. Greene went on to be placed first in the event.
 AP/PTI photo

American 400-metre runners and twin brothers Calvin
(left) and Alvin Harrison of Salinas, swim with dolphins
at Seaworld on the Gold Coast in Australia on Friday. The
American team is in Australia training for the Sydney
Olympic Games.
 AP/PTI photo

Taliban unhappy KABUL,
Aug 26  The Afghan Taliban today slammed the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) for rescinding a
decision to invite two observers from Afghanistan to the
Sydney Games.

Sumit, Prateek in last 8CHANDIGARH,
Aug 26  Sumit Dahiya of Bhiwani and Prateek Sharma
of Panchkula made it to the last eight of the boys under
16 section of the Haryana State Sub-Junior Badminton
Championships which entered the penultimate day here
today. The four-day meet is being organised by District
Badminton Association, Panchkula.

Chopras residence raidedNEW DELHI,
Aug 26  Income Tax authorities have conducted a
raid on cricketer Nikhil Chopras posh South Delhi
residence in connection with the probe into match-fixing
allegations.

Manipur & Nagaland sector in
semisJALANDHAR,
Aug 26  After days of lop-sided matches the decks
are clear for the semifinals of the Xth Inter-Sector CRPF
hockey tournament at Sports Complex of Group Centre here.

NEW DELHI, Aug 26 (UNI)
 Middle distance runner Sunita Rani, who is
recovering from injury,has found a place in the 33 member
Indian Athletic-squad for the Sydney Olympic Games.

With nine officials
accompanying the athletes, it is the biggest component of
the 116 member contingent,followed by the 20 member
hockey team which includes four officials.

The squad which includes
16 women athletes will mainly be seen in action in the
relay events. It is also the biggest ever athletics team
to represent the country in the Olympics.

Interestingly the four
member boxing team will have an equal number of officials
with it, while the three member weightlifting team will
be guided by four officials.

Asked how an injured
athlete-Sunita Rani has been included in the squad, Chef
de Mission of the contingent Ashok Mattoo said the
Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) had
recommended her name. The AAFI is hopeful that Sunita
will be fully fit by the time athletic events start in
the Olympics.

Veteran weightlifter,
Kunjarani Devi does not figure in the list approved by
the government.

The
Nottinghamshire-based cueist was never challenged as he
waltzed past his opponent with ease in the best of 21
frames title round, winning 83-22 74-36 64-38 70-60 90-35
68-0 15-83 71-41 75-0 29-70 21-71 72-19 08-74 67-22 0-92
47-35.

The 20-year-old Fisher,
who kept constant pressure on top seeded Bennie from the
start, pocketed the winners cheque of £ 2,000 in
the 12th edition of the championship, sponsored by
kheladi.Com. Bennie received £ 1000.

The first session,
comprising nine frames, was completely dominated by
Fisher, who led 8-1. Though Bennie managed to win four
frames in the second session, it was too late.

Bennie fell short of
eight points to crack a century in the 15th frame but won
it 92-0. But he was off-colour and seemed in all sorts of
trouble, despite recording seven century breaks in the
championship earlier.

The most interesting
frame was the 14th which saw some good potting by both
cueists.

Fisher started the 14th
frame with a 27 break, followed by Bennies 17 but
things started hotting up then. Fisher opted to play
difficult shots and was lucky to get away with them.

After Bennie missed the
yellow to the left black pocket, with a cluster of reds
in a tricky position, Fisher was in two minds whether to
use half butt to clear the red or to settle
for a snook, and finally opted for the
latter.

Bennie gifted seven
points to see his opponent lead by 55-20. Then, luck
smiled on Fisher, who sent the brown and blue to the
right top to win the frame and make it 10-4.

Though Bennie took the
15th 92-0, Fisher took the 16th and deciding frame 47-35
to emerge winner.

Bennies statement
yesterday that his opponent tended to play better under
pressure turned out to be right, as Fisher was unruffled
even in tricky situations.

The Scott, who had a
good run in the championship not having lost three frames
in any match, found Fisher a tough nut to crack. Most of
the time Bennie was trailing.

Fisher had a good start
with a break of 60 in his 12th visit winning the first
frame 83-22. He had breaks of 47 and 44 in the second and
third enjoyed a cushion lead of 3-0.

Bennies homework
of going into the final with safe play worked
against him. He tactfully opened out the cluster of
reds in the beginning only to end up losing
the frames.

AKRON, Aug 26 (AFP)
 Tiger Woods again gave a gentle reminder to his
competitors in the $ five million World Golf Championship
Invitational here that he is the best and then there is
the rest.

Just five days after
defending his PGA Championship, Woods matched the course
record at the Firestone Country Club with a 9-under-par
61 that opened a seven-stroke lead halfway the
tournament.

The worlds best
golfer navigated one of the PGA Tours more
challenging courses with an eagle, eight birdies and a
bogey to push his 36-hole total to a mind boggling
15-under 125, another record, which he downplayed.

BRUSSELS, Aug 26
(Reuters)  Michael Johnson, who earned a special
place in the Olympics with his 200 and 400 metres double
at the 1996 Atlanta games, returned to the track with an
impressive one-lap victory on Friday which suggested he
was ready to make more sporting history next month.

Back in action after
hurting a hamstring in the US trials last month, Johnson
cruised home in the 400 metres at the Brussels Golden
League meeting in 44.07 seconds, the third fastest time
in the world this year. No other runner has gone faster
in the build-up to the Sydney Olympics which start on
September 15.

Johnson, who pulled up
lame in the 200 metres at the US trials, looked sharp and
in control, cruising through the first 200 metres before
stepping up a gear in the second half of the race to
finish ahead of Britains Mark Richardson, who
clocked 44.72.

The performance of
Richardson, who may be ruled out of the games if an
international athletics arbitration panel decide to ban
him for a positive drug test, was impressive after a week
when his case involving the controversial steroid
nandrolone has been in the news again following a ban on
compatriot Linford Christie.

But Johnson received the
biggest cheer from the Brussels crowd as he prepares to
try to become the first mens 400 metres runner to
retain the Olympic title.

He said he had run
cautiously in the early part of the race when he usually
sets a fierce pace.

Today I had a
totally different strategy because it was my first race
back. The race gave me confidence to go back to my normal
strategy and run the times I want to run. I felt I had
the race under control all the time.

American world sprint
champions Maurice Greene and Marion Jones also proved
they are hitting their best form at the right time with
impressive 100 metres victories.

Greene cruised away from
a quality field in the mens race to win in 9.88.
The time would have been the fastest in the world this
year if the wind at his back had not been above the
permitted limit of two metres per second  2.1.
Compatriot Bernard Williams was second in 10.01 with
Trinidads Ato Boldon third in 10.02.

But Greene knows he
still has a way to go before he can talk of perfection
and plans to work on his reaction time at the gun.

I ran a very good
race and I won, he said. But people are not going
to hand me the gold medal. I have to go and run the race
and get the gold.

The jackpot is paid to
athletes who win their events at five out of the seven
meetings. After victories in Brussels, US hurdler Gail
Devers, Russian long jumper Tatyana Kotova, Norwegian
javelin thrower Trine Hattestad and Moroccos
middle-distancer runner Hicham El Guerrouj are also still
in the running.

Jones, who went close to
a rare defeat in Zurich two weeks ago, produced an almost
perfect start in the womens 100 metres and romped
away to finish several strides ahead in 10.83 seconds.

Savatheda Fynes of the
Bahamas was second in 11.08 and her compatriot Debbie
Ferguson third in 11.11.

Jones is the only
sprinter to have gone faster when she clocked 10.78 in
London earlier this month. The time was even more
impressive since the sprinters faced a headwind of 1.3
metres per second.

I am very pleased
with the victory. The most important thing is that I feel
good, no hindering forces, just smooth sprinting,
she said.

Kenyas Olympic
silver medallist Paul Tergat ran the fastest 10,000
metres in the world this year  27 minutes 3.87
seconds  to the sound of beating African drums.

Brussels, which has a
drum band in place to help the rhythm of the racers, has
often provided a perfect stage for the distance runners
and Tergat set a world record over 10,000 in the stadium
three years ago.

The five times
cross-country world champion needed a fast time to try to
persuade the Kenyan Olympic selectors to pick him for
Sydney after he ran only the 5,000 metres at the national
trials.

Tergat produced a brave
run, racing through the last nine laps on his own after
the rest of the field failed to keep pace.

The athletes are still arriving,
but the Sydney Olympic Games has already been hit by its
first drug scandal. Its three weeks from the games
and it seems that drug stories may dominate the games.
One foreign team has been embarrassed at the Perth
International Airport, but until now there has not been
any headlines in the media. On Wednesday, one of the
senior swimming coaches for the South African team, who
arrived at the airport, was found to be in possession of
a drug which is banned in Olympic competition. Australian
customs calls it a controlled substance and under section
8 of the Customs Act, unless the passenger has a medical
prescription, they are not permitted to bring it into the
country. The Australian Sport Drug agency has confirmed
that the substance is banned in competition because it as
considered a performance-enhancing stimulant. Wally
Forman, Director of the West Australian Institute of
Sport told this correspondent that the drug bust was
absolutely scandalous: Understandably, the
Customs officials here do not want to talk about the
incident publicly, which probably explains the hush up in
the media. But it has been disclosed that the swimming
coach was questioned about the substance but failed to
produce any medical authority for it. After consultation
with their Canberra colleagues the Customs officials here
in Perth confiscated the 500 tablets of the substance and
allowed him to continue his Olympic journey to Sydney.
The substance is something called Mah Whang, a Chinese
herbal substance described in certain documents as a
natural ephedrine substitute.

The fact that the news
was not made public but instead sneaked out in an
exclusive story for an ABC morning talkback program on
Friday morning in Perth, seems strange especially when
world and Olympic sporting bodies claim they are
headhunting drug cheats. Kerry Bone, Director of Research
and Development with Mediherb a company which supplies
herbs to naturopaths and doctors right across Australia,
told the ABC programme the substance was a herbal
product. It contains the active product ephedrine,
which is kind of substance very similar to amphetamines
drug speed. The substance in question is described
in the USA as one of the most controversial herbs even
though it is available over the counter. In other
words any American Olympic athlete or coach who picks up
something over the counter in the USA will face the same
problem when they enter Australia, Mr Bone said.
The reason why it is so controversial in the USA is
because it is sold as a weight loss agent because it
suppresses appetite, and in excessive doses it is a heart
stimulator and has caused heart attacks in people.
At present it is probably causing heart attacks among
Sydney Games organisers. Well-known sports administrator
Mr Forman said: Since it is on the IOC banned
substance list, then I think it is scandalous because the
IOC banned list is well documented and provided to all
countries, he said. For a country which has a
reasonably sophisticated sports system such as South
Africa, Im absolutely staggered to hear this
news, he told this correspondent.

The onus is on
Olympic team medical staff and coaches to make themselves
fully aware of where banned substances appear. With
all the controversy over drug use in sport over the last
few months leading up to the Sydney Games, you would have
thought that international teams such as South Africa
would be super cautious. I would have thought that
they had a drug education programme in place that ensured
that all of their athletes, coaches and medical staff
were aware of what substances were legal and what
substances were illegal. And we all know that it
can be very very difficult because a lot of medicines,
which are freely available over a counter, such as cough
medicine and sinus tablets, actually contain banned
substances. What shouldnt happen is that
through ignorance a senior coach of an Olympic team turns
up at an airport with an amount of a drug which contains
a banned substance. I would have thought
international coaches are better educated than that.

He said it wouldnt
be the last of the drugs because we cant
expect every country in the world and every National
Olympic Committee to have the same sophisticated drug
detection and drug education programme that countries
like Australia or the USA can afford. There
are going to be some mistakes made that are honest
mistakes. We cant accept them and they have to
learn from those mistakes so youve go to expect
that these things are going to happen. But I
cant accept it from a country like South Africa who
in a sporting sense is certainly not a Third World
country.

They have been
back in international competition long enough and they
have been under the spotlight themselves. It has
been pretty well documented that during the long period
when they were ostracised from world sport, a lot of
athletes went to South Africa under the guise of
competing but were actually taking drugs while there.
There have been some German sprinters that have
been banned for those activities. So the South
Africa sports programme was being heavily scrutinised at
the time they came back into international competition.
So for them to be making mistakes like, this you will
have to really question whether or not it was actually a
mistake. This is big.bigger than we are making out
to be. Its really no different to the drug scandal
which hit the 1999 World Swimming Championships in Perth
when the Chinese swimming team was caught at Sydney
airport with a quality of a banned substance This
is just not good enough from a country like South
Africa, he said. Nor from any other for that
matter, we may add. The fact that there is covering up
still going on only reconfirms that there is a lot at
stake for all parties involved.

Olympic torch
does the BhangraIt was Bhangra time for the Olympic torch in New
South Wales on Wednesday. The Sikh community at
Woolgoolga, north of Sydney, put out their special
emblems and dressed in their best attire for the Olympic
torch to change hands outside their temple on Thursday.
The temple is the centre for 2,400 Sikhs in the area.
Mainly with farmers originally from the Punjab, it has
the highest concentration of Sikhs in Australia. Priest
Majit Singh said the Sikh community was as happy as
anybody else to enter into the Olympic spirit. Meanwhile,
it seems not everyone in Australia is into the Olympic
spirit.

Also on Thursday, a
teenager tried to douse the Olympic flame with a fire
extinguisher when it passed through a northern NSW town.
The police say the 17-year-old left the crowd and moved
onto the road taking out a 0.9-kg extinguisher from under
his coat. Only a few weeks ago a young lad on roller
skates hijacked the flame but didnt get too far. In
the more recent incident, the young man aimed the fire
extinguisher at the torch, but it was the torchbearer who
got hit by the white powder. The youth was arrested and
taken to the local police station.

Rumour has it, the
youngster was probably jealous of an old flame!

Hockey
sidelightsIf India does happen to face Australia in the
Olympic hockey tournament in Sydney, it would be apt to
recall how Australias rich hockey tradition owes a
great deal to India. The reason behind this is the
contribution made by the dozens of Indian-born hockey
players and coaches who contributed to the game here
after they migrated from their homeland to make Australia
their country of adoption. Specifically prominent has
been the contribution made by the Anglo-Indian community,
a community which in India produced the likes of Leslie
Claudius and Richard Allen and other great Anglo-Indian
hockey players.

In fact, when India
faced Australia in the semifinals of the 1960 Olympics in
Rome, it was a unique occasion. The captains who came
face to face were both Anglo-Indians: Claudius and Kevin
Carton. Australias current first choice centre half
Paul Gaudion is continuing that Anglo-Indian contribution
to Australian hockey. The 25-year-old Western Australian
schoolteacher was born in Australia but has an
Anglo-Indian father (originally from Madras) and a
British mother. Gooders, as he is nicknamed
by his team-mates, has a natural talent for hockey,
which, together with his sensational skills, he says he
probably got from his Indian heritage, like his love for
curries and Indian food.

Many of his team-mates
tease him that he has got his flexible wrists from his
Indian heritage.

Gaudion is one of the
senior most members of the Australian team and much of
Australias chances to break the bogey of Olympic
gold will depend on his performance in the pivotal centre
half position. He was first selected to play for
Australia in 1994 at the age of 18 and has since
represented Australia in over 150 international games.
With many years of top class hockey still ahead of him,
there is more than a good chance that Gaudion will go on
to break all Australian appearance records and play more
international hockey than any other Australian before
him. One of Gaudions career highlights was when he
visited the city his father was born in and grew up in
 Madras  to represent Australia in the 1997
Champions Trophy.

Unfortunately, hockey
wise it was not a good experience with Australia
finishing in their worst ever position at the Champions
Trophy. What does Gaudion think of Indian hockey? Well he
feels that the Indian team has to back up their ball
skills with improvements in areas such as penalty
corners, trapping, possession and converting
opportunities. Their performance here when they
last came to Australia in April -May must do their
confidence a great deal of good, especially their win
here in the Perth Four Nation.

Who is he backing in the
Olympic tournament?

We have to back
ourselves. And Ill be happy for the Indian team to
win the silver, as long as we win the gold, he says
with a laugh. In fact, the whole Gaudion family has made
a great contribution to hockey in Western Australia with
the three sons playing top-level hockey and their father
a renowned coach.

Ironically the
familys connection with hockey began with them
joining the Harlequins Hockey Club, Perths version
of the Calcutta Rangers Club for which Claudius and
others played. The majority of members of the Harlequin
club are Anglo-Indian and the club team plays in the
competitive Western Australian Premier Division. Among
the current players is Mark Patterson, former Indian
goalkeeper (1988 Seoul Olympics) who now lives and works
in Perth.  PMG

CHANDIGARH, Aug 26
 Sumit Dahiya of Bhiwani and Prateek Sharma of
Panchkula made it to the last eight of the boys under 16
section of the Haryana State Sub-Junior Badminton
Championships which entered the penultimate day here
today. The four-day meet is being organised by District
Badminton Association, Panchkula.

NEW DELHI, Aug 26 (PTI)
 Income Tax authorities have conducted a raid on
cricketer Nikhil Chopras posh South Delhi residence
in connection with the probe into match-fixing
allegations.

Chopra, who was present
during the search at his residence yesterday in Defence
Colony was also searched by the IT personnel at the
airport when he returned from London on Thursday night,
IT sources said.

The raids were in
continuation of the process started by IT Department on
July 20 when they swooped on the premises of cricketers,
board officials and bookies.

Chopra was among three
cricket players who were not present during the raids as
they were away in London to play in a benefit match on
July 29.

JALANDHAR, Aug 26 
After days of lop-sided matches the decks are clear for
the semifinals of the Xth Inter-Sector CRPF hockey
tournament at Sports Complex of Group Centre here.

Manipur & Nagaland
Sector will square off with Bihar Sector in the first
semifinal and former runners-up North West Zone Sector
will cross swords with Eastern Sector in the second
semifinal.

In pool A
Manipur & Nagaland earned six points from their all
two outings. In pool-B North West Zone Sector proved
their supremacy in league phase by earning six points
from two outings. In pool-C Bihar Sector topped the table
with 4 points from their two league matches. In Pool-D
Eastern Sector have six points in the pool and qualified
for the semifinals.

In the first match of
the sixth day Bihar Sector defeated Central Sector by
3-0. The second tie of the pool C was a
lacklustre affair in the first half. The Bihar Centre had
an upper hand and remained in the rivals territory
throughout the game. On the other hand Central Sector
boys lacked proper planning and never rose beyond
mediocrity, except in the patches. The Bihar
Sectors boys missed two golden chances in first
half.

On all these occasions,
their forwards were the culprits.

In last league match of
the tournament from pool D eastern sector
defeated Jammu & Kashmir sector by 3-1 and entered in
the semifinal of the tournament.

Both teams displayed
brilliant game. Tanvir opened the account of Bihar Sector
in the 28th minute with brilliant field goal. After
trailing by one goal in first half, Southern Sector
restored parity in the 45th minute and goal scorer from
their side was T. Kujur. At the end of the regular time
of 70 minutes both the teams were level at 1-1.

CHENNAI,
Aug 26 (UNI)  Thanks to a superb hat-trick by forward
Susan Abraham, Kerala crushed Bhopal 4-0 to make the
quarterfinal grade form group H in the 32nd
Junior National Womens Hockey Championship here
today.

Earlier in other matches, Chandigarh humbled a lowly Gujarat 15-0, with Prakash Chowdhry scoring eight goals, including five in a row, in group “E”, while Manipur and Himachal Pradesh played to a 1-1 draw in group “G”.